Rather, I think it is more interesting to continue the very serious conversation about which exact crimes they have committed, who has committed them, and what kind of punishment they may expect to receive, a process that will begin hours (not days) after they relinquish power.

I want to say one quick thing about Obama’s comments on this, echoing Paul Krugman in today’s NYTimes: a) Obama would be making a huge mistake, despite the short-term advice being given him by inside counselors (the top one the son of an Israeli terrorist) about letting the Neocons and other criminals get off the hook; and, b) it isn’t up to him.

This latter view is worth pursuing:

Who cares what Obama decides to do about Bush? Excuse me, but I just could not care less. When criminals break the law, we don’t ask candidates-to-be if we should prosecute. I would suggest that ANY comments by the Obama team indicating a lack of will to prosecute would, of itself, be worth examining as being in some way accessory.

In other words, Obama: on this subject, please shut up. We are not interested in your first big mistake: not prosecuting the most evil and dangerous villains ever to misuse power in the U.S. government.

Therefore, regardless of the Obama political calculations, we should be resolved, as we have in past similar situations (Iran Contra, Watergate) to put these crimininals to trial.

There are so many crimes, it seems almost impossible to list them; I certainly won’t try to here, but will leave it to experts in each department and field to do so. Krugman says he has counted six different departments wherein crimes were committed; that seems too small a number, but it does not matter.

Here is a simple question: who is responsible for nearly a million civilian deaths in a faked war? There was never, ever a need for an Iraq war; and that statement will stand the test of history. Given its truth, we should not be talking about the few thousand GI deaths as the cost of the war, but should recognize that the United States, without cause or any particular aggression on Iraq’s part, and without any proven concern for its own safety, did cause the deaths of between 600,000 and 1,000,000 civilians in that country.

Let’s see now, is Dick Cheney ready to stand up and pay for this? Exactly how, Mr. Cheney, are you planning on doing that?

One million civilian dead.

And then we have the increasingly-correct pattern I have discovered about the entire Bush administration: it was about nothing smaller or larger than regular old Texan self-dealing. If you are familiar with Texas political history, self-dealing is kind of like getting up in the morning. But, for the rest of us in the Union, self-dealing is unethical and often illegal.

The story of the Bush administration will fall into prosecutorial parts, all of them very large, and all of them worth the effort of pursuit and conviction:

1. Killling of Innocent Civilians. With no cause, and based upon lies and deception, the Bush administration invented a war which led directly to the deaths of about 1 million civilians. Welcome to Hell, boys. If the reconstituted Justice Department doesn’t get you, Satan surely will. I’m glad y’all are so religious, that’ll be worth five points.

2. Self-dealing. Richard Clarke noted your map showing an Iraq already divided between oil companies nine months before you declared war. In fact, self-dealing is the single term that describes the entire Bush time in office. Everything the Bush folk did was, in some way or other, self-dealing. Specifically, historians will be working for years to figure out how you managed to milk $3T (trillion) out of taxpayers and transfer it to – - well, that is the interesting question, isn’t it? Did it all go to Cheney, since he was the real president most of this time, and he retained real financial connections to Halliburton, and Halliburton got most of the money?

But that is being way too simple about all of this. Let’s just assume that, starting with Enron, Kenny Boy Lay, and moving through Cheney’s top-secret energy committee meetings, on into the Iraq War, you used every opportunity, not to serve your country, but to serve your friends. With $3T in cash. Oww! Gee, some large number of people are SURELY going to jail on that one. $10B in cash missing in boxes in the first weeks of the Iraq War, and today, maybe $350B missing so far, with so much more still undiscovered — WOW! George, there is no other word for this kind of theft from the taxpayer other than, well, breathtaking.

Don’t worry. We will find it. And we will find your fingerprints, and those of your self-dealing Texas pals, eventually. It might take three or four years, but we have time.

3. Perverting the Justice Department, and Justice, itself. Others have written eloquently about this; it was, generally, mirrored in the EPA, and in other government agencies. I personally think your goofy AG Gonzalez will serve time, and many of his mis-guided screwballs will also go to jail. Mssr. Yoo is first in line for writing 8th grade level deceptive opinions on why torture etc. was legal. Other appointees made for purely political purposes will come next.

In a brief not-quite summary: in addition to killing millions of innocent civilians without cause, self-dealing trillions of dollars to Halliburton, KBR, and your own family, and doing your best to destroy the Rule of Law and Bill of Rights in this country, there remain thousands of other, smaller, but also important, crimes, for which you

The Defendants, civilians
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Donald Rumsfeld
Douglas Feith
Richard Perle
Larry Franklin
Paul Wolfowitz
Condoleezzaa Rice
John Yoo
Alberto Gonzalez
Unnamed John Does in the Justice Department
Unnamed John Does in the EPA
Unnamed John Does in the other departments of government
“Scooter” Libby
Karl Rove

Are hereby charged to answer, on the xxth of February, at XXXX in Washington, DC.—-

The world is watching, and, more importantly, so is the nation. Even more important, so are the criminals who did these really, really horrible things.

This prosecutorial decision is not up to the Obama Transition Team. This is about breaking the law.

Krugman says that, without punishment, you will continue doing what your Dad did in Iran Contra.  BTW, George, I did in fact notice that your very first act in office was to extend the secrecy of your father’s archives, beyond their usual time coming public.  So: Iran Contra.  Daddy started it, You continued it.

I think Krugman is right: if no one is punished for the most flagrant and greatest violation of U.S. laws in history by (illegally?) elected politicians, how can we go forward?  How can the world, knowing that the Z Team is just waiting, in reserve, to come back onto the field and do it all over again?

Neither the country, nor the world, can afford it; nor can we afford even the doubt about it.

We need to be clear: when you intentionally, flagrantly, break the law, we will come after you.  Even if you are or were an elected official.

That is the most well-loved aspect of America, and it is the part of America we most want to keep.

So, Mssr. Obama, please don’t discuss this publicly at any greater length.  If I wanted you to be the person who decided whether the law mattered or not, I would have voted for you as the Decider, instead of as the President.

Put some steel in that backbone, and get used to having it there.  Your widest road to failure is paved with having no personal stand.   We all like Henry Clay when it comes to geographical compromise.  None of us would espouse the same approach to murder, or abrogation of the Bill of Rights.

The Bush Team is going to jail, and one hopes, quite soon.  Of course, then we’ll have to face the ultimate self-dealing question: Can a President pardon himself and all of his self-dealing friends for crimes in the future, for which they have yet to be charged?

The answer is no, but I have no doubt he, and they, will try.  They have already proved to us that they have no personal shame.

My guess is you hardly know what I’m talking about, or have never heard of the matter, or knew there was an indictment years ago but figured nothing had yet happened, or –

My guess is also that few of you knew that Larry Franklin has already pleaded guilty to charges under the Espionage Act (thereby avoiding a messy trial), and that he is currently serving a term of over 13 years in a federal penitentiary.  Franklin, yet another Neocon, reported to Neocon Douglas Feith, who reported to Neocon Paul Wolfowitz, who reported to Neocon Don Rumsfeld, who was brought in by Neocon Dick Cheney.  All but the latter have since been stripped of their office or have vanished from power.

Ah, you say, you’re starting to remember?  Maybe the reason you don’t recall is that the above headline did not appear on the top of the fold front page, as it should have.  Keep in mind, there remain two members of the American Israel PAC who are still under indictment on charges under the Espionage Act who have yet to come to trial.

Some observers of this whole proceeding, including myself, have wondered openly if even the meager public writings (and prosecutions) about this have gotten it  backward: that the pipe was running from Israel to the Pentagon, helping launch the Iraq War (with Iran next up).  The connections between the Neocons and Israel are public, intimate and numerous.

Perhaps the headlines should have run:

Israel Uses Spies To Take US to War!!

Instead, the NYTimes told us:

“Pentagon Analyst Gets 12 Years for Disclosing Data”

not bothering to mention that a raid on Franklin’s home by agents revealed at least 86 classified documents, including a Presidential Directive.

Those in the craft recall the Jonathan Pollard case, in which Pollard was convicted of spying for our ally (Israel) and shipping off top secret (no, beyond top secret) Navy submarine encryption codes, perhaps the most damaging and dangerous disclosure made since Wen Ho Lee got the plans for our top nuclear weapon design and (probably) shipped them off to friends in China.

I have checked with a number of people who, like me, should be well-informed on things like this: all of them were clueless on the Franklin confession, conviction and incarceration.  Am I the only one?  Are we the only ones?  Or is this HUGE story being swept under yet another administration carpet?

The American people deserve to know who is spying on them, why, and with what result or damage.  And the major media have a duty to tell them.  Get to it, kids, this stuff is years old, and the real story, I think, has yet to see the light of day.

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How could that be?  Just yesterday, I heard NPR unabashedly refer to this Abbas guy as “the president of Palestine.”  Maybe NPR has idiots for editors?  Maybe someone forgot to tell them that that guy Bush had over for a state dinner at the White House is, er, a fraud.

Actually, it’s worse: he’s our puppet.  Israel decided that the winners were too violent.

(Israel outkills the Palestinians in terms of innocent civilians by 4 to 1.  They also continually try to assassinate all Palestinian political leaders – or did, until they recently decided to take sides.  Now they just try to assassinate Hamas leadership, like the leader killed in Syria a couple weeks ago.)

Once Israel decided the winners of the Palestinian election were too violent, the U.S., poodle that it is, quickly agreed, and that was that. 

Or, in French, f**k democracy.

Now it falls to the global media to accept and propagate this tragicomedy.  I understand if someone writes, the “militant Hamas,” or “Hamas, the group responsible for most attacks on Israel,” both of which are probably true and fair. 

But the Bush family is responsible for most of the attacks on the Middle East, and I don’t see them stepping down because of it, in favor of the democratically elected (we now know) other party.

Is everyone really fooled by this charade?  Yes, I think most people forget about the details quite quickly.  Take Wikipedia, for example, which defines Abbas’ office this way, directly linked to his own page:

“The President is elected directly by the Palestinian people for a four year term.” 

That, Jimmy Wales, is an outright lie.

If you are in the media, please stop calling Abbas “president.”  There must be a better word. 

 “Poodle President” works for me.